THE SMBs v THE TOON *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2025-2026

 Posted '8.00pm bells' Saturday 13th Decembaa 2025 🏁 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 

"THE RIVER TYNE VERSES THE RIVER wear!"                                         "A DERBY LIKE NEE OTHAA!"

Where else in the country do yoo get a derby ‘hate’ match just 12 miles apart, where the fans speak with different accents? (Geordies say “Howay the lads!” while the mackems say “Ha’way the lads!”)

The rivalry and hatred even gans back to the English civil war in the 1600s when The Geordies from the Tyne supported King Charles and the mackems from the wear supported the Parliamentarians!

The Geordies and the King won of course and the rivalry and vitriol ⬅️(We naa aal the big words!) iz still there ower 400 hundred years later!

Then on Good Friday in 1901 at St. James’ Park, there woz another ‘war’ when NUFC played the mackems!

The match never took place az rival fans fought on the pitch before the game started!  An estimated 70,000 to 100,000 tried to gain entry, when the capacity woz just 30,000!

There were even hoards of fans who clambered precariously onto the main stand roof for a better view!

One Newcasil fan woz so drunk, he fell oot of the grandstand, which nearly collapsed under the weight of fans on the roof!

Before lang the pitch turned into a ploughed field! The crossbars were broken in half and fierce fighting ensued!

One sund’lind fans who woz beaten up by half crazed rival fans, sued Newcasil for hiz money back, but lost hiz case and had to pay £70 costs!( A considerable sum in 1901)

Fast forward 124 years and the fiece rivalry and pure hatred iz still there!

To have to gan to 2 matches in the space of a month, to be locked into the groond for ages after the match haz finished, iz fcukin’ pergatory! (Marseille 4 weeks ago and now The Stadium of 💩 tomorrow!)

The sooner we are oot of thiz 💩 🕳️ the better, whatever the result!

Let’s hope and pray 🙏🏻 that it’s 3 points to The Toon and that we can enjoy the rest of the Xmas 🎄 period!

“THE GEORDIE TIMES HAZ SPOKEN!”

ground number 219 revisited, bay arena, levercusen

 Ground number 219 revisited

(125th European competition game ‘in  a row’)

Date of Visit: 10th December 2025

Bay Arena, Leverkusen, Germany

Bayer Leverkusen 2

Newcastle United 2 (Gordon (pen), Miley)

Champions League group stage game 6

Attendance: 30,210 (1,800 Toon fans in away enclosure, plus about 3,000 in the home sections)

🎵 AND THEN WE’LL GO AA BOOZIN—-IN BAYER LEVERKUSEN! 🎶 

The train jorneez from Tyneside on Tuezday didn’t gan to plan, az there were several delays, the worst bein an hour and a qwaataa gannin through Jawmany! I used to say that Jawman trains 🚂 ran like clockwork, but not any more!🥶

We eventually arrived at wor hotel next to Dusseldorf station some 12 hours after crossing the Tyne, totally nackered!—- but not nackered enough to gan for a few gargels 🍻 after dumpin wor bags at the Ibis hotel 🏨 

The next day woz match day and we had 2 games to gan tee! The forst one at 2 bells 🔔 woz wor U19s game v Leverkusen u19s at the little stadium next to The Bay Arena (A match report in that game which we list 2-1, later)

The main game woz at ‘9 🛎️ bells’ and so we had loads of time between the 2 games for several ‘liquid lubrications’ before heedin to ‘The Bay’! (Boozer report at bottom of page⬇️)

TO THE MATCH!

Unlike Marseille, we were actually allowed to gan to the match withoot any escorts before kick off!

We arrived 1 hour beforehand—-and after some ‘gargels’, which you could actually take to your seats!

Seats in the front row of the top deck of the away section gave us a great view of the pitch!

We could see that there were loads of Toon fans in the home sections, openly wearin wor colours (at least 3,000) and there woz nee animosity between rival fans! 👏 

The game kicked off and we attacked the far goal from where we were housed in a corner section!

It woz even stevens in the forst few minutes, with both teams missin chances!

And then disaster struck in the 13th minute! Leverkusen had a corner on the far side from us, which woz floated into the middle!

A mad scramble then ensured and Bruno inadvertently put the baall into hiz own goal, to give the home side the lead! 1-0 to them!

NUFC tried in vain for an equaliser, but withoot havin shots on target after their goal, it woz a ‘no brainer’!

HT 1-0 to them!

Within 10 minutes of the restart we were level when Nick Waltermade woz brought doon by Bayer’s goalie Flekken in the box!

The ref pointed straight to the spot and Anthony Gordon easily dispatched the baall straight into the net, to huge cheers from the Toon travellers in the away AND home sections of the stadium!

Gordon then hit a glorious shot against the post, but the baall rebounded to safety!

Then, on the hour mark Lewis Miley woz brought into the fray to replace an injured Joelinton and not lang after he made history by heedin into the net from a Anthony Gordon cross, to send the faithful wild with delight! (The youngest NUFC player to score in a Champions Leegue game!)

Not lang after Jacob Murphy became the 2nd player to hit the frame of the goal!—But again the baall rebounded to safety!

Of course, az the clock ticked doon, Leverkusen equalised in the 88th minute, to yet again break wor hearts for the 2nd time in a few days, when Grimaldi fired home from close range! (1st Sporz on Saturday with a late goal—and now Bayer on Wedinzday!)😱

The result leaves us in 12th place in the Champions Leegue table in a play off place, while a win would have propelled us up to 6th place and automatic qualification for the knockoot stage!

Talk aboot shootin yourself in the the foot! YET AGAIN! 🦶🔫😵‍💫

PSV Eindhoven are next on January 21st at SJP and the PSG in Paris a week later! 

THE DAY AFTER THE GAME!⬇️

We heeded for Dusseldorf station and the ‘plan’ woz to get the train to Liege for a few liquid refreshments of the alcoholic variety, on the way to Brussels, to catch the Eurostar back to London! 

We had to change at  Munchingladbach ⬇️ and a packed train came in!

At forst we decided to wait for a later train for a seat, but in the end we decided to get on and stand!   However there were odd seats available and so instead of gannin to Liege, we decided to gan straight to Brussels for the ‘gargels’ instead!

We foond a canny bar off the beaten track and stopped there, before gettin the Eurostar!

We then foond oot that the train we were goin to get from Liege woz an hour late—which meant we would have missed the Eurostar back! (So it woz indeed a wise move to gan aall the way to Brussels!)

There were some empty seats on the fully booked Eurostar and we assumed that they were seats for Toon fans who had missed it!

Anyway! When we got back to London we had loads of time to get a few more pints of the broon stuff before catching the last train back to The Toon from King’s Cross!

Another exhausting trip to Europe under wor belt!—And the 125th ‘in a row’ for European competition games for me, between 1977 and 2025! It’s a milestone—-or should that be MILLSTONE?😵‍💫

More match plus ‘Pub crawl’pix to follow!⬇️ az the day progresses!

In total 12 drinkin dens were visited on the way to Jawmany and on the way back in London, Dusseldorf, Leverkusen and Brussels 

LONDON⬆️⬇️ BEFORE EUROSTAR

EUROSTAR DEPARTURE LOUNGE LONDON

DUSSELDORF⬇️⬆️

DUSSELDORF HOTEL BAR⬆️

LEVERKUSEN⬇️⬆️

⬇️

⬇️⬆️LEVERKUSEN 

LEVERKUSEN⬆️⬇️

BAY ARENA AWAY CONCOURSE BAR ⬆️LEVERKUSEN

BRUSSELS⬆️⬇️

⬇️⬆️

BACK IN LONDON⬇️⬆️

BACK IN LONDON⬆️⬇️

LONDON

MORE PIX⬇️

BAY ARENA⬆️⬇️

LEVERKUSEN⬆️⬇️

A JAWMAN XMAS MARKET IN JAWMANY?  SURELY NOT!🤔

A JAWMAN IN TRADITIONAL JAWMAN DRESS!

⬇️

GROUND 219 REVISITED. BAYER LEVERKUSEN V THE TOON *** CHAMPIONS LEEGUE GROUP STAGE

Posted ‘high noon ‘bells 🔔’ Tuezday 9th Decembaa 2025

BAY ARENA, LEVERKUSEN, JAWMANY

“AND THEN WE’LL GO A’ BOOZIN—-IN BAYER LEVERKUREN!”—- WATCH OUT EUROPE—-THE GEORDIE BOYS ARE CRUISIN’!”

Az we speak we are on wor way to Leverkusen in Jawmany by choo choo train 🚂 via King’s Cross and Eurostar from St. Pancras ( London) for ‘Game 6’ in The Champions Leegue tomorrow neet!

ULRICH-HABERLAND STADION IN THE SHADOWS OF THE BAY ARENA! —NEW GROOND!—-NEW GROOND!

Az an added bonus ⬆️ for ‘The NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers’, we will watch wor U19s v Leverkusen U19s in the UEFA Youth Leegue in the the groond next door, which kicks off 7 hours before the ‘big boys game’ at ‘2 🔔s’ Jawman time! And admission iz FREE! 👏 

The Toon were allocated 1,800 tickets in The Bay Arena, that holds 30,000 (Looks much bigger!⬇️)

A match ⚽️ and boozer🍺 crawl-report from Dusseldorf (Where wor hotel iz!) and Leverkusen, will be online sometime on Thorzday, on the train(s) back yem!

Watch oot for sppellin erraz on mee mobile ‘telling bone’, az the train wobbles from side to side occasionally!

Update Thorzday on the train from Brussels to London.

Unfortunately the internet signal isn’t very good and so the match report won’t appear til Friday now!

Grovelling apologeeez, BUT this IZ The Geordie Times!

Wot did yoo expect???🤔

FA CUP 3rd ROOND DRAW TOONEET! “COME IN NUMBER 26!”

 Posted ‘6.30pm bells 🔔’ Munday 8th Decembaa 2025

The draw for the thord roond of the FA Cup takes place from ‘6.40 🔔s’ in 10 minutes time! (The actual draw will probably not start til after ‘7🔔s’ of course, after they waffle on aboot absolutely nowt beforehand!)

What we want iz a home draw against lower Leegue opposition, or failin that an away draw against a team we have never played before!

There arnt many groonds left that The NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers havvint been tee to watch The Toon!

In fact, oot of the other 64 teams left in the competition, there are anly 5 teams that we have never visited before!

They are: Salford, Fleetwood, MK Dons, Brackley (if they beat Burton tooneet?) and Weston Super Mare!

Just in case you are wondering, we have been to Waalsaal (NUFC U21s), Boreham Wood (NUFC U21s,), Macclesfield (NUFC U21s), Sutton (NUFC U21s) and Millwaall (NUFC U18s)

NUFC are baall number 26!

The Geordie Times will bring yoo the news of just who we have got, when we watch the draw live on TNT SPORTS (Before the Brackley v Burton game, which kicks off at ‘7.30 🛎️s’)

Updated 6.54pm bells 🔔’ ⬇️

ITS ‘THE CHERRY 🍒 PICKERS’ OF BOURNEMOOOTH AT SJP!

“HOME SWEET HOME!”

🤪👍🏁🏆🥇

THE TOON 2. THE BORNLEEE HILLBILLIES 1 *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2025-2026

 Posted ‘high noon 🕛 bells 🔔’ Sunday 7th Decembaa 2025

“WOBBLE ON!” 🦆 

Let’s be honest, this woz a 💩 performance from The Toon against a 💩 Borleee side that will surely be relegated!

In the forst half alone wor visitors had aboot 8 corners at The Gallowgate End, before we got wor forst one on the half hour mark!

The Hillbillies were unsuccessful in their 8 or so corners, but Bruno’s corner from the Milburn Stand side curled straight into the gar corner of net past former Toon keeper Martin Dubravka, to give us the lead!

Amazingleee it woz wor forst EVER goal direct from a corner in the Premyaa Leegue era!

1-0 to us!

Then in the 43rd minute Pires hacked doon Anthony Elanga, who woz clean through on goal and the Bornleee man woz instantly given the red card 🟥 to reduce them to 10 men!

Deep into stoppage time we were awarded a penalty when Ugochukwuuu handled in the box! (Hope av sppeltt hiz name reet?) VAR told the ref Attwel to gan to the monitor and after an age lookin at it, pointed to the spot!

Anthony Gordon took it and sent Dubravka the wrang way to put us 2-0 up against 10 men!

Surely there woz nee way back for Bornleee now?—But this IZ NUFC and az we naa from past experiences, anything can happen!—and it nearly did!

To cut a lang story short, we had many chances to increase wor lead with Gordon hitting the woodwork twice for example!

Yohan Wissa finally made an appearance in the 73rd minute to huge cheers from the crowd and he woz unlucky not to score in the final few minutes!

And then disaster nearly struck when  Jacob Ramsey needlessly handled the baall in the box in the 90th minute and the inevertable penalty woz given!

Fleming scored it in the 94th minute to set wor hearts racing!

And amazingly they nearly equalised when a cross across the box woz missed by 2 of their players,  az the crowd whistled frantically for the final whistle!— It could anly happen to ‘us’!

After stoppage time goals for Sporz last week, The Liverbirds and The Arse, orlier this season, to deny NUFC precious points, it had nearly happened again, az we ‘wobbled’ on! 🦆 

We were finally put oot of wor misery in the 9th minute of stoppage time to claim the 3 points, which puts us within 3 points of 4th place in the Premyaa Leegue table!

Attendance: 52,041 (2,500 Hillbillies)

*Explanation: Bornleee play high up in the Pennine hills ⛰️ of Lancashire—Hence ‘The Hillbillies’ ➡️ 🧌

THE TOON V THE BORNLEEE HILLBILLIES *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2025-2026

 Posted ‘high noon 🕛 bells 🔔’ Saturday 6th Decembaa 2025

 

THE BODEGA, WESTGATE ROAD

NUFC gan into this game in 12th place in the Premyaa Leegue table, while Bornleee sit in 2nd bottom place and lookin like relegation candidates yet again! (A yo-yo club for certain!)

IF we win it will propel us to within reach of a Champions Leegue place!

Rumour haz it that Yohan Wissa could at last make hiz debut after bein oot since he signed on deadline day! (But divvint haad yer breath!)😵

Definitely oot are The Pope, Trippier, Osalu,Krafth and Botman!

While Sandro Tonali iz a doubt with a knee injury!

Let’s hope we can get the 3 points. az we heed into ‘game 6’, away to Bayer Leverkusen in Jawmany next Wedinzday in the Champions Leegue group stage!

A full Geordie Times match report will appear here az per usual, sometime on Sunday!

“Watch this space!” ⬇️

SJP 145 YEARS AND MANY MORE!

 Posted ‘2.00pm 🛎️ bells’ Friday 5th Decembaa 2025

HOW SJP COULD LOOK IF WE EXTEND THE GALLOWGATE END (LEFT) AND MAKE IT THE SAME HEIGHT AZ THE LEAZES AND MILBURN STANDS! 

“20-30 VISION!”

News reaches The Geordie Times that we will be at SJP for many more years and that decision on a new stadium in Leazes Park haz been put on the back burner!

An extension at The Gallowgate End would bring wor capacity to ower 60,000

CEO David Hopkinson did a talk in at The Stack in the shadows of The Gallowgate End earlier this week and said this:⬇️

THE TOON 2. SPORZ 2 *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2025-2026

 Posted ‘12.37pm bells’ 🔔 Wedinzday 3rd Decembaa 2025

“MORE ADDED TIME AGONY!”

For the third time this season we conceded a stoppage time goal at SJP! This time it woz from Sporz who secured a point with a bicycle kick goal from Romero in the 5th minute of 9 added time!

NUFC started off the better side and had far more possession in the forst half az we attacked the Leazes goal!

However, we failed to find the back of the net and went in goal-less at the break!

Attacking the Gallowgate End the Toon finally made the breakthrough in the 71st minute when Anthony Gordon foond Waltemade, who flicked the baall to Bruno —and he struck a bullet shot past Vicario in the Sporz goal to put us 1-0 up!

That lead didn’t last lang when Romero equalised with a dramatic diving heeder from a cross 7 minutes after wor goal!

Just when it looked az though the game might end in a draw, Dan Burn woz wrestled doon in the box by Bentancur and after a lengthy VAR check the penalty woz given!

It looked az though Waltemade would take the spot kick az Sporz players tried to put him off, but at the last minute he handed the baall to Anthony Gordon who struck the baall to the right of Vicario, to put us 2-1 up with 8 minutes to gan to the 90

Then the 4th official indicated NINE minutes of stoppage time, when we thought it should have been 5 at the most?—and of course an owerheed kick, which could have went anywhere, ended up in the back of the net to deny us the valuable 3 point!— A draw that felt like a defeat!

Had NUFC won , then we would have moved up to 7th place in the table, just one behind a Champions Leegue place—-instead we stay in 13th place with 19 points! (Just one less than last season!)

The BBC said in their comments, that had we held onto aall wor 4 winnin positions this season, remarkably, we would be in top spot in the Premyaa Leegue table with 11 more points! “WOW!”

Attendance: 52,007 (Including a sold oot 3,000 in the visitors section)

NUFC must dust worselz doon and gan again on Saturday, when 2nd bottom Burnley come to Toon!

3 points iz a ‘must’, but divvint haad yer breath! 😵

THE TOON V SPORZ *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2025-2026

 Posted ‘high noon bells 🔔’ Tuezday 2nd Decembaa 2025

"WISSA---NOT WOT THE DR (CONGO) ORDERED!"

We gan into the last month of the year lookin for wor 7th home win in a row in aall competitions!

We have aalready beaten Sporz 2-0 in the Leegue Cup in Octobaa at SJP and so we will be favourites to take the 3 points to climb into the top half of the Premyaa Leegue table! (Hopefully!?)

One bit of good news iz that long term absent striker Yoane Wissa, will NOT play in the African Nations Cup in Morocco next month, az the above DR Congo squad for the tournament annoonced today, doesnt include him in it!

Of course Wissa haz yet to kick a baall in anger for us, but we hear that he played in a behind closed doors pratice match on Saturday while we beat Evaatin 4-1 at their brand new Dickhead Stadium (or whatever its caalled?)

We predict that he will play some part in a game sometime this month---Botman, Trippier, Osula and The Pope will take no part in tooneets game, which kicks off at the ridiculous time of '8.15 bells' 🔔 az DEMANDED by Sky for its live telly coverage!

The Geordie Times envisages that the same startin line up az on Saturday will take the field with several substitutions in the 2nd half to give some of the starters a rest in this hectic period, with 2 games a week in 3 competitions til the new year! (and beyond!)

We will of course have a compreeehensive match report sometime on Wedinzday!---Az per usual!---"Watch this space intentleeee!"

Meeenwhile!--at 'The Stack', in the shadows of The Gallowgate End, NUFC chiefs had a ‘talk in’ with fans tooneet and the main story iz!---That nee decision haz been made yet on eethaa stayin at SJP or movin 'next door' to Leazes Park! (See below!)⬇️